Searching through list of cities with underground music, I stumbled upon Sibiu. I know many people from Sibiu, but I haven't really heard of too many bands there. I search through my encyclopedia of bands and see a name I recognize: Buricul Pamantului.
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Buricul Pamantului, a band whose name comes from a circle of rocks somewhere
in the city where the members of the original band would hang out during
high school. Buricul Pamantului translated word-by-word means "navel of the
Earth". Funny, huh? It's actually a Romanian expression, when the world kind
of revolves around you or something. But that's a totally different story.
Their music is labeled Balcanic Alternative with hard/ethno/funk influences.
Does it mean anything to you? To me it gives a kind of idea of the band:
from the balcanic zone, with an original sound. Now, to a listener who
doesn't speak Romanian, their music isn't that special. To a Romanian...it
depends. Like they said, the first impression to some of their songs is that
they don't really mean anything. Listen to it a few times, and you might see
the message. Some more subtile than others, songs like "Tara lui O.Laie",
"Cantec de N-ai" and more present allusions (sad, but true) of our country:
the wonderful Romania. That's why I had that very nice discussion about out
beloved country in the interview below. We'll get to that. Woke up your interest? No...? Ok. Now, let's see something about the band Current line-up: |
Elsis - vocalist
Vio - guitar
Rares - bass
Adi - drums
Although the band is quite old, the original members each followed a different path and only Elsis stayed to continue Buricul Pamantului's story. In about 2002, after many tries, the band started living again with Elsis, Vio, Luci and Adi. They recorded an album... and it was all perfect. Luci left the country, Rares came. Hopefully they'll be even better now. They have a nice collection of awards. International. Let's name a few: Vest underground song of the year 2003, best soundtrack in a Brazilian film festival, and a few I probably can't remember. National they got 3rd place at the "St. George Rock night" and in the finale of a quite way-too-promoted contest whose finale was never held. I think I talked about that as well. Ah yeah, they also have a well-done video to "Tara lui O.laie". You can find it on their website "at the home page, you can see it says "click aici...". Press it and see.
Now, I managed to get an interview with the guitarist (Vio in case you were too lazy to read) and Vocalist (Elsis). Enjoy!
Virus: For the readers out there who didn't get a chance to listen to your songs, and to whom „balcanic alternative with hard/ethno/funk influences" means nothing (and were too lazy to read the article)...Try to define your music.
Vio: I think our style is hard to define. But I can tell you this: it's go everything on it, especially spices. "Balcanic"... It gets a certain "tone" which you don't see in America. From my point of view you can see certain procedures (musically speaking) which you just can't get in other countries. Using them, we make our music better... It gets a certain label. Plus the effects we use (especially distortion) makes our music fit into the rock category.
Elsis: balcanic alternative: typical to the area from where we come from. We don't sing starting from Romanian folklore, but from the Balcanic one.
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Virus: How did you guys find each other? Elsis: Well, the original line-up...we were friends who used to hang out together: sing, laugh, and tell stories and such. We went to the same high school. So... we've been friends since we've been 14 or something. Then... each one followed a different path. I stayed here, and later found the current members. Vio: And this is where I come in. There were many line-ups before me after the other left, but they weren't going too well. The band's base was formed of Elsis and Adi (drummer). Then came Luci (bassist), then me. Once I came we finally got a stable formation, which proved to perfect for us... it let us study together, compose together, you know... what makes a band. I think it was good we didn't have any "stars" in the band. I'm glad none of us is one. We're actually in a real technical and creative progress. We're not one of those bands who sing what they can. We sing what we want to sing. Proof? We have loads of songs that are waiting for their final form (when we can get it how we wanted it to be, not how it gets). After Luci left (he left the country), we had to look for a new bassist. It was hard, but I think we got it working again. We also have a concert soon in Pitesti. It'll be the first concert with the new line-up. It'll be fun. |
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Virus: You have international awards. But in Romania, not too many have heard of you. How do you explain that?
Vio: oh...that's a delicate question.
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Elsis: you just put the dot on the "I", saying the word "Romania". It's not
our fault the ones in charge with promoting aren't doing their job the way
they should. We do what we have to do as musicians like Vio said earlier.
We try to get a certain value, but most ones in charge of promoting on
national TV and Radio stations prefer music which doens't make you think,
that rarely means anything... Virus: yeah, but I'm not talking just about TV. There are a lot of bands that don't have a video on TV, but have popular concerts, and are known by quite a lot of people. Elsis: like? Virus: Travka, Seven, E.M.I.L, C.A.S.H, and so on. You just have to get rid of the "I don't like Romanian music and start looking...and you find them. But if you were to ask random people of the streets if they ever listened to your music, they say no. Elsis: you're from Bucharest. We only came to Bucharest once. And I don't think well come again too soon. Virus: But most bands I found and like are from the Internet. Not from clubs and stuff. |
Elsis: There are enough Bucharest people that know of us. But that's it. We're not popular there. The bad part is, if you're known in Bucharest, then you get to be known outside it... but not promoted. That’s a different thing. Anyway, we didn't want to come for free in Bucharest like so many club owners expect us to. Over there, everyone wants free concerts. That's not too fair, is it? We have to pay quite a lot to get there. A good example is Alternative Nation (a contest held earlier this year): 90 bands came for free. They sang there. And do you know what happened next? The finale got cancelled. Cool huh? For 8 months, that club hard bands from all across the country play FOR FREE. For nothing. We asked the guy from that club to play again next week, after the Pitesti concert. But he wanted us to play for free. So... we're not going. And by free concerts we don't mean free entries, because you have to pay to get in. And there are many clubs in Bucharest that do that. That's why there are more and more bands that got sick of it. So they go to other sides of the country. We don't need it. We got public there as well, perhaps even a bigger one. I feel sorry for the fans though.
Vio: Yeah, he's all pissed off after that one. We all are, but I got used to the idea. It's true; if you're not known in Bucharest... then it's hard to get out. You have to get there first in order to be known. You have to go knock on everyone's doors, and get used to the fact many of them will close. I can't say that about all those boy bands out there, and those kids with dads that work who-knows-where and get promoted even if it's just a short "I wanna be famous" phase. Give them a nice vid, get them in a studio...but put them on stage and see the real value.
| Virus: Luckily there are certain people that refuse to open TV or radio and
have Internet, looking for real music. Unfortunately, not all manage to find
it. There’s also the "I don't listen to Romanian music" concept. Vio: Underground is the music that isn't promoted, but... they do something. They say something...It's not the music made to be liked, or made for the pleasure of hearing yourself on the radio. We have many talented bands, but they don't have the money to have albums. What about the people that refuse to have implants? They won't get a cheap popular video like the ones that do, will they? Virus: And the manele (Romanian type of music. basically crap. but very popular here)... Vio: That’s just lack of culture. Virus: with Adi de Vito having concerts in foreign countries... |
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Virus: Like the event in Cluj? When they cancelled many shows due to lack of ticket selling, but Luna Amara got over 500?
Vio: Right.
Virus: And all these international bands coming to visit us lately. Perhaps there is a bright future after all.
Vio: Yeah, I’m an optimist. I realize that it's a slow process....but it exists. We are getting somewhere. Who knows where we'll be in 10-20 years? Did you ever play Caesar III? That game gives you the idea of evolution of civilisation. Slow....but it's there.
Elsis: Ah yes, and one thing... You didn't hear it, but others did... Look on radio Dada; we have 2 songs in top10 there for like... 3 months:)
Virus: You picked "Tara lui O.Laie" to have a video. Why that song?
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Vio: well, I think it's got a good point of view. It’s got a message. It
just...fits. It’s sad, but true (In the country of O.laie it smells like
sheep) hidden underneath rhymes that sound like a joke. Virus: yeah I noticed the it-sounds-like-a-joke-at-first thing... Vio: that's the point. Elsis: yeah, but the real reason is the fans wanted it. We let them pick. They wanted this one, so we gave it to them. Virus: And an awesome video it was. Elsis: thanks. I made it. But it could've been better. Like, I had this really awesome idea with a shepard... and a dance... Virus: Shepards? |
Elsis: Yeah! They’re everywhere. They're in Bucharest as well, only you can't recognise them.
Virus: anyway, I think you're the one who did the site as well...am I right? It's great by the way!
Elsis: yeah, I'm specialised in graphical design and multimedia. But I could do much better. What was I talking about? Ah yeah, anyway, we've got loads of shepards. But the wave of new bands kind of hides that. And the next album, I think it will be way better than "Generatia mea". I hope we'll get better and better with every year.
Virus: Speaking of the album, what are you personal favourites? Which ones do you think are more special?
Elsis: I don't know exactly..."Tara lui O.Laie", "Razna", "Nu stiu ce vrei"...they're all special for us.
Vio: basically all. Except the last one, which was supposed to be a parody... Each one has something special in it. I'm proud of them. It's good for a debut album in my opinion. We have totally different pieces. Not all represent us (me at least), but they're a point of view which should be noticed. Technically speaking, there's room for improvement, but the message is basically the same in the songs we had to modify...just a different interpretation. I rather sing the songs depending on the mood we want to inflict on the listener. Like, we can sing a soft song in an aggressive manner just to have a bigger impact, and vice-versa.